City to Sell 110 Acres of Surplus Property

Aug 08, 2016 03:33PM
● By Kelly Cannon

The 110 acres adjacent to Highland and Alpine will be sold for $7.3 million.--Draper City

Draper, Utah - The Draper City Council approved the sale of surplus
property for $7.3 million during its council meeting on Aug. 2. The 110 acres
is located at approximately 2900 E. 16000 South, adjacent to Highland City
and Alpine City.

“We surplussed the property back in 2013. We started this
process and had a hearing,” said Russell Fox, assistant city manager, during
the meeting. “We did have an initial offering on this property and then we had
a counteroffer. At that point, we decided to go off and do a sealed bid
process.”

Fox said the city received three offers on the property. One
was for $2.5 million, one was for $6 million and the final was for $7.3
million. The final offer was the offer presented to the city council.

The city is required by contract to hold six months of “due
diligence.”

“This isn’t something that if we approve the purchase of the
real estate contract, we don’t immediately get the funding right away,” Fox
said. “Basically what will happen is this allows the property owner and
developer to go in and do the due diligence process, see what type of
development they can get on that property, see that everything is clear as far
as road extensions and water rights.”

Fox has been in contact with man who made the $7.3 million
offer and Fox said he is aware there needs to be road connections and water
improvements in order to develop the property.

“One of the things that is interesting about this is because
we now have 2200 acres of open space, there was a one-to-one ratio of
development that was allowed,” Fox said. “This allows whatever kind of development
we want to approve when they start going through and looking at that.”

Councilmember William Rappleye said he appreciated the earlier
discussion on this matter since it made making a decision easier that evening.

Councilmember Jeff Stenquist also commented on how this is a
tremendous opportunity for the city.

“The taxpayers of the city have done a tremendous service to
the city to preserve all this open space,” Stenquist said. “It’s something that
I think help relieves that financial burden.”

The vote was unanimous with Councilmember Michele Weeks
absent from the meeting.